It's so easy to find something to complain about when it comes to local government. In Montgomery County we pay high property taxes and whine about it regularly. We have a tax for just about everything. But I experienced government working to help the residents on my street, and I was surprisingly happy with the results.
It started with my asphalt driveway that's looking worn out and tired. The heavy winter we had last year really took its toll. Even our little tool shed looks arthritic after holding up 3 feet of snow on its roof. Then we noticed that the drainage ditch along the front of our property line had eroded into a steep slope with a dangerous edge. There are kids who walk to the school bus every day and the ditch was starting to look like a real hazard.
As a real estate agent, I know the county website has lots of good information, www.montgomerycountymd.gov under "Resident" services, so I started looking through the different options to find the right person to call about road repair. Lo and behold, there's actually a link for drainage issues on public property so I clicked on it and filled out the form. Within a week I received an email response to tell me a review of my request would include an on-site visit from a county rep. After two more weeks, I received another email to tell me I would see work being done to correct the problem. Literally just a few days later, six trucks and 7 workers showed up. They started regrading and repairing the drainage ditch and corrected not only the area in front of my property, but they corrected the problem for the entire cul-de-sac. It's was finished off with grass seed along the edge of the road all the way around to help with the erosion problem.
I have never experienced such a fast response and great results from any other government agency anywhere, so thank you Montgomery County! You did a good job!
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